There's growing acknowledgment that businesses will benefit by moving to cloud based solutions. Outside of the IT department or broadly read general managers, there is some confusion as to what is prompting this consensus. Three major impulses are cost, market demands, and responsiveness. We will cite seven benefits typically identified as cloud computing benefits:
- Accessibility /Portability
- Flexibility
- Scalability / storage capacity
- Security
- Best practices / continual update
- Reduced need for upfront hardware infrastructure
- Cost effective prioritization
It was not long ago that most businesses operated from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. Information was centralized, being housed in the office or at a data center that could only be accessed via a secure, proprietary connection. Hardware infrastructure was designed to meet some percentage, perhaps 105%, of peak demand during standard hours. Today, however, the average smartphone has as much computing power as the original supercomputer, ENIAC. The advancement on the Internet, email, and telecommunication overall has resulted in the expectation that even small businesses are (at least partially) accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 a year.
CONSUMER BEHAVIORAL CHANGES
The ebb and flow of consumer demand varies more widely; if nothing else, there are more businesses attracting more customers beyond their immediate locations which often imply different time zones. Even when a live customer service representative might not be immediately available, consumers expect a website that operates around the clock, with a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section, AI (artificial intelligent) BOT or email contact that will respond within 24 business hours. When it is harder to gauge demand, it is better to have a system that can easily scale up or down accordingly.
NEW WORKFORCE REALITY
With a more remote workforce - whether it is a function of differing skill-sets needed or shelter in place mandates - the need to access company data at anytime and from anywhere has increased in demand and complexity. Security, portability, and accessibility all need to work seamlessly to safely and effectively support this new reality. While employees need access and customers expect responsiveness, hackers are probing for vulnerabilities to insert malware and intercept information. Outsourced, cloud solutions are continually updating to best practices to grant permission to authorized individuals while preventing breaches by unauthorized ones. Additionally, in the event of breach or localized emergency, disaster recovery services can restore business applications in real time to improve customer interactions.
EVOLVING TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
Previously systems required hardware architecture to match anticipated needs, often ahead of actual experience. Guess wrong - IT Managers could be left with unnecessary excess hardware. The other alternative of insufficient throughput to meet demand might be worse. In a managed environment, it is easier to re-scale and adapt in real-time. Besides capacity, think about other functionality. Rather than progressing in discontinuous leaps and lurches, there's greater responsiveness for market challenges and future advancements.
BE FLEXIBLE & COST EFFECTIVE
Why have a proprietary system that fails to provide a competitive advantage? Worse still, why invest a priori in hardware and software that will likely require specific skillsets to maintain and advance at a pace far slower than the general IT market? Why have an architecture that does not allow for modular upgrades and instead require constant either-or decisions? It is far better to operate in an environment that encourages logical progressions where businesses can pursue migration paths that yield the most upsides, removes the most bottlenecks, replaces the most obsolete hardware, or provides the quickest increases in capabilities. Ultimately, IT systems exist not for the technology themselves but to be responsive to customer needs - both internal and external.
Continuous maintenance? Check. Automatic scaling? We have that covered. Planned updating? Sure. More predictable cost structure? Absolutely. These are among the best features of cloud and managed services. Call A2Z IT Business IT at (914) 821-5660 to begin the discussion as to how acquire performance-based, cost-effective, and rock-solid IT support.
